Services can be accessed by users via a communication network operated by a network operator. A service that is accessible via a network operator's communication network may be provided by a service provider different from the network operator. Alternatively, the service provider and the operator can be identical. A user may operate a user device like a mobile phone or a computer for service access via the communication network.
Examples for services are typical telecommunication services like e.g. making a phone call, sending messages via Short Message Service (SMS) or Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) or downloading a ring tone or a video clip or mobile television.
A common feature is that commercial operators charge a user for service access, i.e. for the activation and/or the usage of a service.
Rating is the practice of determining the cost for access to a particular service. The rating process involves converting data that is related to the access of a service into monetary-equivalent value. The rating process further considers tariffs for calculating the price to be charged to the user for service access. Data that is related to the access of a service, in the following denoted “service access related data”, is typically quantifiable and certain types exist like time property (e.g. day of week, date, time of day) or amount of usage (e.g. duration of call, amount of data, number of messages. number of songs), destination of the call (e.g. land line, overseas), or origin of call or location of the caller, or type of network used (e.g. mobile network, fixed network). Another example for service access related data is the type of subscription of a user, e.g. regular or premium service subscription, minute-based or second-based, flat-rate or not.
A tariff typically consists of a rate and/or a fee. A rate is the price set for an event, e.g. price per unit per minute or price per unit of transferred data. A fee is a—typically fixed—amount that can be added on when charging for certain events, e.g. a fee may be raised when a roaming call is connected. An event may be identical to service access related data or derived therefrom.
A rating entity, sometimes also known as rating engine, can be employed to determine the cost to be charged for access to a service. The rating entity may collect service access related data and calculate the costs for the service access under consideration of an applicable tariff. The determination of the applicable tariff may depend on at least some of the service access related data. A typical example for a service access by a user is a mobile phone call made by the user to another user, wherein the location and subscription information of both users, the time of service activation (e.g. working hours or weekend etc.) typically have an impact on the applicable tariff which can be determined by the operator taking into account the aforementioned service access related data. The rating engine may then calculate the costs for the call, e.g. based the duration of the call under consideration of the tariff comprising a rate on a per minute base and a fee for roaming users.
Common to all known charging systems is that tariffs are set by the communication network operators. If a service is provided by a service provider different from the network operator, the service provider may impact the tariff in addition.
Cost-aware users can only minimize their bill by influencing service access related data as far as possible, e.g. by reducing the number and duration of service access or avoiding roaming. However, this behavior is inconvenient for the user and also detrimental for the operators that have an interest in increased service access especially in case of low communication network load. On the other hand, operators need some means to control service access in situations of high communication network load, e.g. by prioritizing premium users over regular users. However, such a control mechanism based on fixed subscription is highly inflexible and does not fit to users that urgently need to access a service and would be willing to pay more.